1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for cooling electronic equipment.
2. Background Art
Electronic equipment such as personal computers, network servers, tape storage systems, and disk storage systems generate heat during operation. These types of devices should be cooled to optimize performance. In the prior art, air circulation fans were used to circulate ambient air across electronic components for cooling purposes. Larger and more powerful systems tend to generate more heat and are difficult to cool by circulating air around electrical components. If heat is allowed to build up, performance of the electronic equipment may be degraded.
It has been proposed to use water to cool electronic systems. Using water to cool electronic components can only be accomplished if water is prevented from actually contacting electronic components. Cray and IBM computer systems have had fixed cooling systems that are integrated as part of the design that are similar to automotive cooling systems or refrigeration systems. It has been proposed by others to use a cabinet that has a water circulation system in the walls of the cabinet to cool electronic components housed within the cabinet. One problem with this approach is that heat build up generally occurs in the interior of the electronic component rack. Cooling the walls of the cabinet is not particularly effective as cooling the internal areas of an electronic equipment rack.
The present invention is directed to overcome the above problems and address the need for a modular heat exchanger blade for cooling electronic equipment. In particular, the present invention addresses the need for providing a blade type heat exchanger for cooling high density electronic devices such as disk drive arrays, servers, and the like. There is also a need for a modular water cooling system that may be retrofitted to existing high density electronic devices to address the problem of heat build up on current products. Finally, there is a need for a modular cooling system having individual elements that can be repositioned, removed, or supplemented as the configuration and requirements of the computer system changes.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems and others as summarized below.